Origins of the ‘new style’ (tarz-i tāza) of Persian poetry in the 16-17 centuries in the work of ‘Abd ar-Rahman Jami (1414-1492)

Archive of Scientific Articles

ISSUE:

Philology. Theory & Practice. 2025. Volume 18. Issue 5

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Foreign Literature

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Abstract. The purpose of the study is to determine the role of ‘Abd ar-Rahman Jami (1414-1492) in the formation of the ‘new style’ (tarz-i tāza) of medieval Persian poetry, which fully developed in the 16-17 centuries. The article aims to create a more accurate picture of Jami’s position in the poetic practice of his time, the influence of his artistic experience on the work of poets of the next generations, and, ultimately, the place of the great poet in the history of Persian literature as a whole. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that Jami’s lyrical poetry is being considered in this perspective for the first time: the comparison of the ideas expressed in his ghazals about the perfection of poetic speech with the statements of poets of a later time has not been carried out before. The analysis showed some lexical components and motifs of the Jami’s ghazals, which continued active development in the lyrics of the adherents of the ‘new style’ – Figani Shirazi (second half of the 15 cen. – 1516 or 1519), Saib Tabrizi (1601-1667), Shaukat Bukharai (died 1695). These were repeated epithets and comparisons, as well as groups of motifs related to the genre repertoire of ‘self-praise’ (faxr). The individual author’s techniques of transformation of traditional motifs, used by Jami to achieve the effect of image visualizing, become an instrument of stylistic innovations for poets of the next generations. These techniques acquire a stable character in their work and become specific features of a ‘special manner’ (šīve-yi xāṣ). The analysis showed that Jami was a representative of the transitional phase of the stylistic evolution of Persian poetry, since his work combined two different criteria for the perfection of poetic speech – inherited from the previous period (‘sweetness’) and succeeding it (‘colorfulness’). Jami’s artistic endeavors have become entrenched in the poetic canon, and this suggests that his creative experience was one of the factors that changed the stylistic vector in Persian poetry during the 16-17 centuries.